Four other birds provide extremely mournful and pathetic superstitions. The
Linnet pours forth the most melancholy song of all Irish birds, and I have
seen honest-hearted peasants affected by it to tears. On inquiry I found
the secret cause to be the belief that its notes voiced the plaints of some
unhappy soul in the spirit land. The changeless and interminable chant of
the Yellow Bunting is the subject of a very singular superstition. Its
notes, begun each afternoon at the precise hour of 3, are regarded as
summons to prayer for souls not yet relieved from purgatorial penance. A
variety of Finch has notes which resemble what is called the "Bride-groom's
song" of unutterable dolor for a lost bride--a legend of superstition
easily traceable to the German Hartz mountain peasantry; while in the
solemn intensity of the Bittern's sad and plaintive boom, still a
universally received token of spirit-warning, can be recognized the origin
of the mournful cries of the wailing Banshee.
[Illustration: BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER.]